Guest: Andrew Chaikin. Topics: Neil Armstrong & his One small step for man lunar comment, space policy, space media, and more. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. We welcomed Andy Chaikin back to the program. Please visit his website for more information, www.andrewchaikin.com. We started our discussion with Andy telling us about the BBC documentary with Neil Armstrong’s brother’s comments about Neil’s famous Apollo 11 landing statement, then the Guardian’s (a UK paper) calling Neil a liar. Much of our first segment was devoted to this story and incident. We then moved on and talked about Golden Spike as Andy is part of the Golden Spike team. He had some very interesting nontechnical and general observations about the effort, the timing, and the Golden Spike team. Also in this segment, we talked about the need for low cost space access, then listener Paul in Houston asked Andy about the impact on the new space business given the US and global economy. This started an interesting conversation assessing where we are as a nation and culture today and the options we have for moving forward or not. Both Andy and I talked about solutions going through space but neither of us could say which way we might end up going. We also talked about the media and its problems, a discussions that was carried forward to the next segment.

In the next segment, we started with a call from Doug who had additional comments on the Armstrong story. We also talked about the need for sustainable commercial space, again focusing in on the need to lower the cost to space. Andy then talked extensively about lessons learned at NASA over the years and the book he is writing for NASA on the subject which addresses the principles of success in spaceflight and management. Our policy and historical overview and current assessment continued to the end of this nearly two hour program.

Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog below. You can reach Mr. Chaikin through his website or through me.